Old Towne Beverly: Small town flavour infuses east end neighbourhood

Cornel Rusnak knows food. As manager of the Beverly Market for the last 15 years (and former director of the Business Improvement Area in Beverly), he has seen the neighbourhood’s culinary culture expand from a handful of standards — including Uncle Ed’s and the Mundare Sausage House — to include a (relatively) new crop of eateries and retailers attracting food tourists city-wide.

Drawing on the area’s history as a centre for coal mining (over 50 mines operated in Beverly between 1900 and 1950), Rusnak jokes that “now, we dig for food.” Indeed, the Old Beverly Café at 3908 118 Ave. has designed its cosy space around the mining concept, with rough-hewn beams supporting walls hung with antique lamps and other vintage items.

To be sure, Beverly has struggled with a reputation as a tough part of town, and change has been slow. But after spending a morning trawling for snacks and ingredients at five businesses recommended by Rusnak, I can confidently say this is a welcoming neighbourhood worthy of food exploration.

The Beverly culinary trade spreads along roughly 16 blocks, east of 50 St. and straight down 118 Ave. I suggest building your food tour around the Beverly Farmers Market, found at 3941 118 Ave. on Tuesdays from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.

I have a soft spot for the Beverly market. Though it’s not trendy — there isn’t a single booth for vegan beard care — it’s small and manageable, with quality food vendors. Make sure and leave time, and room in your belly, before and after your market visit to sample neighbourhood wares.

Consider starting your tour with an espresso from the Italian Bakery, which opened at 4118 118 Ave. in 1985. With two other locations around Edmonton, including Mercato Foods in St. Albert, the bakery has been run by the Frattin family since 1960.

Gilbert (Gibby) Frattin is the face of the 118 Ave. location, which is freshly painted and appointed after a 2016 fire shut the bakery down for about a year. Wearing a black T-shirt that says “If it’s not Italian Bakery, Forgetaboutit,” Frattin proudly itemizes specialty items in his 4,000-square-foot grocery store, including European breads such as the signature pagnotta (a light sourdough), plus deli meats and cheeses and a host of speciality Italian products from tomato sauce to bocconcini. Make sure and try the bakery’s tasty cannoli.

“Beverly is different,” says Fratin, 57, who has worked in the family business since he was a little boy. “It’s one of the best places to be. It has that old-town atmosphere.”

“I just love this area,” says Keller, who has operated a Swiss-style soup and sandwich shop in Beverly on and off since 2012 (she moved briefly to the west end in 2014 before hightailing it back to Beverly in 2015.)

“People are very welcoming, very real,” she says. “I feel like I’m coming home when I come here.”

If you visit the 24-seat Swiss 2 Go (4306 118 Ave.), be prepared for a hug. Keller enjoys greeting customers (old and new) in person during breaks from her main job — creating the most delicious, fresh-baked pretzel buns ever. The buns are stuffed with a variety of European meats and cheeses, and there are vegetarian options as well.

Swiss 2 Go, with its bright red-and-white checked curtains and rustic antiques, invites lingering, and Keller encourages customers to spend time enjoying each bite of her labour. Swiss 2 Go is my favourite sandwich shop in all of Edmonton; consider sampling The Matterhorn — built from a thick layer of butter and avocado and a stack of bresola (alpine-style dried beef).

One of the more surprising stops on my tour was the Yang Ming buffet (3414 118 Ave.) The massive, modern restaurant is in the Travelodge, right beside the library, and is known for fresh, delicious and reasonably priced Chinese fare, with an emphasis on dim sum, and a full-on, handmade sushi bar. Owners Lisa Ma and Gordon Ma, who used to run a restaurant in Rocky Mountain House, opened in Beverly about 18 months ago “because there were no big restaurants in this area,” says Lisa Ma.

The day we visited Yang Ming, four chefs from NAIT, drawn by word of mouth, were loading up on dim sum, and pronounced it delicious. Yang Ming has dozens of traditional Chinese foods to pick from, such as hot and sour soup and pork buns. The Monday-to-Friday lunch buffet is $17.99 for adults, and kids aged five to nine pay only $10.99.

If you prefer Western fare, pop by Old Beverly Cafe for their best-selling roast beef panini, or the house-made gluten-free banana bread. Owned and run by the Bentin family, including parents Michael and Rachel and their four children aged 13 to 20, the café pours beverages into delicate teacups, and also sells a few fashion items, such as scarves and baby clothes.

Naomi Bentin is part of the family-run Old Beverly Café. Shaughn Butts/PostmediaShaughn Butts /
Postmedia

Our final stop was at A Yah Mi Deh, which has both a small shop for Caribbean foods and a Caribbean-style restaurant located side-by-side at 4433 and 4435 118 Ave. Both enjoyed a major facelift in 2013. Run by Jamaican transplant Mary Scott since 2007, the shop has shelves of Caribbean snacks and beloved products such as Foska Oats, and a hefty cardboard box of fresh Scotch Bonnet peppers (beware their legendary kick).

Rusnak recommends a few other quirky spots for curious diners who appreciate the arcane. Take Five is a doughnut and coffee shop (11801 48 St.) where you can burrow into a used book while eating starchy snacks made right in the shop, every day. If you have a yen for roadhouse-style breakfast, complete with a flask of coffee set right on your table by servers who have spent decades at the job, think about Jay Bee’s Diner (3316 118 Ave.) The spotless Million Thai (right across the street from Swiss 2 Go at 4109 118 Ave.) has a good reputation for authentic, freshly-prepared Thai food.